The moment their eyes met, Elysia instinctively lowered her head.
Only one thought echoed through her mind.
I have to avoid them.
Those ticking time bombs.
The instant the service ended, Elysia hurried back to her room faster than anyone else.
***
Click.
As soon as the door shut behind her, Elysia leaned against the wooden door.
The moment she slid the lock into place—
"...Ha..."
A short breath escaped her lips. The strength drained from her legs, and she slowly collapsed onto the floor.
Even with her eyes closed, she couldn't erase them.
Valentin's icy gaze, brief though it had been.
Those piercing blue eyes had seemed completely empty, yet sharper than any blade.
And beside him...
Tristan's eyes.
From beginning to end, he had stared at her so openly that it wasn't merely hot—it almost stung.
It felt as if she had been caught between ice and fire at the same time.
Her mind was in complete disarray.
"No way..."
Steadying her breathing, Elysia ran a trembling hand over her face.
"How the hell did those bastards get in here...?"
She wasn't even sure how she'd managed to escape.
She had never imagined this could happen.
She had been certain she'd completely eliminated any possibility of crossing paths with them.
A convent was supposed to be a sanctuary where men weren't allowed.
And yet those two had shown up as clergymen...
How did that make any sense?
Perhaps that was why she'd grown careless.
After living here for so long, she'd almost forgotten about them.
Determined to refresh her memory, Elysia began reviewing the records on the two ticking time bombs.
The three of them had known each other since childhood before meeting again upon reaching adulthood.
She started with Valentin.
[System]
Name: Valentin de Arcane
Age: 26
Status: (Former) Elysia's Unrequited Love / (Current) High Priest
Heir to House Arcane.
Special Notes
-Has a political marriage arranged.
-Calm, meticulous, and rarely shows emotion.
-An elegant piece of trash who treats people as tools.
Even seeing it again, she couldn't help thinking the same thing.
...How the hell did this asshole become a priest?
Valentin de Arcane was the very definition of an elegant piece of trash.
He was probably the person furthest removed from the conscience and faith expected of a priest.
As the most handsome man in the world according to the original story, Elysia had fallen in love with him at first sight.
Unfortunately, the heir of House Arcane had lived every moment of his life according to a carefully arranged plan.
Valentin followed that plan without deviating by even the slightest degree.
He had studied abroad.
His family had already selected his future wife.
There had never been a place for Elysia Gray in the life laid out for him.
So what happened?
[System]
Ending record found for this character.
<Valentin de Arcane Route — Ending: Dollhouse>
He went through with the arranged marriage exactly as planned.
The unexpected variable remained nothing more than a variable.
"Eli, marriage is simply something that's necessary."
"This is different."
His voice remained perfectly calm.
Not the slightest trace of guilt showed on his face.
"I've already arranged everything."
"In the way everyone wanted."
He imprisoned Elysia inside a secret mansion known only to him and kept her there as his mistress.
Eventually, Elysia resigned herself to her fate and never left him.
But that wasn't where the ending stopped.
Enraged, Tristan stormed into the mansion and pointed a gun at Valentin.
The instant he fired, Elysia threw herself in front of the bullet.
Elysia died.
The next shot killed Valentin.
Then Tristan—having shot Elysia with his own hands—turned the gun on himself.
A horrifying massacre ending.
...Ugh. Those lunatics.
It's just as horrifying no matter how many times I think about it.
The two of them were terrifying in completely different ways.
Valentin made Elysia surrender little by little, like a frog slowly boiling in a pot.
By the time she realized what was happening, she was already trapped, cooked alive without ever having had a chance to escape.
Avoiding him was unquestionably the smartest choice.
But what about Tristan?
Then again... this guy shouldn't be a Holy Knight either.
[System]
Name: Tristan Loch
Age: 24
Status: (Former) Elysia's Childhood Friend / (Current) Commander of the Holy Knights
Illegitimate son of the Marquess of Loch.
Special Notes
-Combat-specialized character (expert in hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship)
-Strong sense of justice and an extremely straightforward personality
-Suffocating overprotectiveness and friendship as dangerous as a deadly weapon
Unlike Valentin—the arrogant alpha male—Tristan was all raw masculinity and brute strength.
As a descendant of the family that guarded the frontier, his martial prowess was exceptional.
He possessed an unwavering sense of justice...
But it was directed exclusively toward Elysia.
A man who once followed Elysia had been left permanently crippled after Tristan "asked him a few questions."
Another man who badmouthed her ended up in a coma after Tristan supposedly "talked some sense into him."
To Elysia, Tristan wasn't a shield.
He was...
A shield used to smash other people's skulls.
[System]
Ending record found for this character.
<Tristan Loch Route — Ending: Fireworks>
Tristan ran away with Elysia.
"You have to stay beside me."
"You almost got hurt."
His protectiveness toward his childhood friend had long crossed the line.
He looked ready to keep her glued to his side every second of every day.
"Are you trying to drive me insane?"
But their escape didn't last long.
The mansion where they were hiding was consumed by a mysterious fire.
In the end, Tristan and Elysia died together—
On the same day.
At the exact same moment.
Soon afterward, Valentin was discovered as a cold corpse himself.
A perfect delayed massacre ending.
The story never revealed who set the mansion ablaze.
Still, it was hard to ignore the obvious suspicion that Valentin had been responsible.
Either way...
Tristan resembled a raging wildfire.
Once it spread, nothing could stop it, leaving Elysia with nothing but utter helplessness.
Watching the two obsessive men from behind a screen had been thrilling entertainment.
But now that she had become Elysia herself...
It was no longer fun to watch.
It's basically a battle between a sociopath and a guy with severe anger-management issues.
Neither of them was remotely sane.
And as if that weren't enough...
The two lunatics absolutely despised each other.
Calling it romance or obsession sounded nice.
In reality, it was kidnapping.
Murder.
Arson.
A full-scale criminal showdown.
And Elysia Gray's role was simple—
Die one way.
Or die another.
Leave me out of it.
Please just kill each other.
Of course, the game did contain other choices besides the obvious endings.
Whatever happens, happens.
Sia once chose not to shield Valentin.
She let him take the bullet and ran away.
The result?
[System]
<Valentin de Arcane Route — Ending 2: Fallen Cinderella>
...She missed a step on the staircase and died.
She also tried choosing Tristan before escaping the burning mansion.
The result?
[System]
<Tristan Loch Route — Ending 2: First Time Seeing a Corpse>
...She died of a heart attack after discovering Tristan had been assassinated.
After that...
The ridiculous death endings only kept coming.
[System]
Multiple ending records collected.
<Valentin de Arcane Route>
-Ending 3: ...It's me. Not him. (Mistaken for Valentin while sleeping under a blanket and killed.)
-Ending 4: Who Are You? (Crushed to death by a broken door while opening it.)
...
<Tristan Loch Route>
-Ending 3: The Lucky Letter That Went Unanswered (Ignored a chain letter and died.)
-Ending 4: Just One Bite (Snatched and ate a poisoned cookie before dying.)
To survive all those death flags, Elysia practically needed a body made of glass and nerves made of even thinner glass.
Her head throbbed.
This was the absolute worst.
So this time, she had fled before becoming deeply entangled with either of them and hidden herself inside the convent.
Fortunately, it was still before she'd confessed her feelings to Valentin...
And before she'd accepted Tristan's heartfelt confession.
Yet somehow, those two corrupt monsters had appeared in this sanctuary for men...
In identities she could never have imagined.
"...Seriously."
"Why does this religion let just any random bastard become clergy?"
To be fair, Sia herself had spent her inheritance and dowry just to become a nun and enter the convent.
She'd done it to survive...
So she wasn't exactly in a position to criticize Goddess Arne's impartial mercy.
"...What am I supposed to do?"
She couldn't stay locked inside this room forever.
She needed a plan.
Wait.
This was a convent.
Given where she was, perhaps she'd been worrying too much.
Clergy were bound by vows of chastity, and romantic relationships between men and women weren't allowed here.
If anything...
This place should have been safer than the outside world.
[System]
Fate Value adjusted due to the influence of the gathering location.
I knew it.
Thank goodness.
I actually survived...
[System]
Hidden Route <The Depraved Night of the Temple> has begun.
Aaah!
Sia clamped both hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming.
The Depraved Night of the Temple?
Even the name sounded catastrophically ominous.
[System]
Would you like to start the game?
[ Yes / No ]
At least this game still had the courtesy to ask for the player's consent before beginning.
No.
No.
No.
Her trembling finger frantically hammered the No button over and over again.
[System]
We're sorry.
Your Morality stat is too low.
You cannot refuse the strategy route.
Refusing accomplished absolutely nothing.
[System]
Strategy TIP — How to Increase Morality
A tip?
If I raise my Morality, I can refuse?
Then I'll just increase it first and—
1. Wake up every day at 3:00 a.m. and recite one hundred prayers of repentance. (Morality +0.01 per prayer)
2. Complete a barefoot pilgrimage to the summit of the mountain behind the convent. (Morality +0.3 per trip)
3. Fast for ten consecutive days, consuming nothing but water and a small amount of salt. (Morality +1, HP -50)
She gave up the instant she saw the methods.
Even after enduring training that bordered on self-torture, the amount of Morality she'd recover was practically microscopic.
The cost-performance ratio was abysmal.
Rather than receiving useful advice from the System...
She felt like she'd just been thoroughly mocked.
What now...
She was back where she'd started.
After pondering for a while, Elysia unexpectedly reached a simple conclusion.
The Hidden Route had activated because the gathering location adjusted her Fate Value.
In that case...
"Right."
"If the location is the problem..."
"I'll just change locations."
Run.
Escaping the goddess's embrace—now transformed into hell itself—had become her top priority.
***
She packed lightly.
The money she'd managed to save.
One hard loaf of bread to satisfy her hunger.
A few changes of clothes.
That was all.
Anything else would only slow down her unplanned midnight escape.
The night was so dark that even the moonlight barely reached the ground.
Listening to the chirping insects, Sia quietly approached the convent's stone wall before swiftly climbing a large tree beside it.
She planned to climb over the wall from there.
Goodbye to this suffocating convent life.
She didn't have a detailed plan.
There wasn't time to make one.
She'd just go somewhere far away and find work.
Taking one long breath to steel herself, Sia prepared to climb over the wall.
Then—
As if by magic...
Her body refused to move.
[System]
LOCK MODE Activated!
You cannot leave the convent.
What...?
[System]
The Hidden Route has already begun.
You can no longer escape your fate.
"Eli."
The familiar voice reached her ears.
Her breath caught instantly.
Slowly...
She turned her head and looked down.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Below her stood Tristan.
His pitch-black eyes, as though they had swallowed all light, coiled around her like a waiting serpent.
[System]
You have been captured by 'Tristan Loch.'